A blog for all spicy food related subjects. Recipes and articles for South & South East Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, etc).

Another cold and miserable January evening. Share prices are plumetting. Booo! A memory of sitting on a warm beach far away flashes through my head. You still gotta eat though: seeing how we are in the eye of the storm, recession-wise, I was thinking about how to be economical while being able to savour exotic, good and healthy food. On the way home from work I thought up this one; Carrot, Coriander and Red Chilli Soup. Filling, healthy, and the chilli gives a lovely warm kick through the sour sweet coriander & carrot mixture.

And here's a tip - buy your asian herbs & chillis loose in a Market or Emporium if you can. There's no point in buying a big bag of chillis in the supermarket only to use half of them and have the other half grow mouldy in the fridge. For example, I was able to get a bunch of fresh coriander for 0.85c in the Chinese emporium.

Ingredients

Carrots

1-2 Red Chillis

1 Potato

1 Onion

2 Cloves Garlic

Ginger (Or Galangal, about the size of the tip of your thumb)

Fresh Bunch of Coriander

Recipe

Dice the carrots & potato and set aside. Mash the garlic, Deseeded Chilli, Coriander and Ginger (using a mortar) into a paste and set aside. Dry roast some cumin seeds and cinnamon bark - while they are getting fragrant, finely chop the onion. Turn the heat down, add a little oil and sweat the paste to release those badass flavours. After 2-3 minutes turn the heat up a bit & add the onion and fry until translucent. Then add the carrots & potato. Stir for a bit and then add the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 20-25 minutes. Blast in a blender to liquefy the soup and return to the pot. Serve with some shavings of red chilli & sprigs of coriander for garnish.